Invention

Definition:An object, process or technique that displays an element of
novelty. In certain circumstances, legal protection may be granted
to an invention by way of a patent.
.

Innovative new products are the fuel for the most powerful
growth engine you can connect to. You can grow without new
products--AT&T sold essentially the same telephones for decades
while becoming the world's largest telecommunications concern--but
most small companies will find it difficult to grow at all, much
less rapidly, without a constant stream of new products that meet
customer needs.

If you decide to develop new products as part of your growth
plan, you're in good company. Small companies contribute at least
half of the major industrial innovations occurring in the United
States, according to the SBA. At the same time, approximately
one-third of all new products are unsuccessful, and in some
industries, the percentage of failures is much higher. The way to
increase your chances of coming up with good ideas is to follow the
tested track to new product development success.

New product development can be described as a five-stage
process, beginning with generating ideas and progressing to
marketing completed products. In between are processes where you
evaluate and screen product ideas, take steps to protect your
ideas, and finalize design in an R&D stage. Following are
details on each stage:

1. Generating ideas. This stage consists of two parts:
creating an idea and developing it for commercial sale. There are
many good techniques for idea creation, including brainstorming,
random association and even daydreaming. You may want to generate a
long list of ideas and then whittle them down to a very few that
appear to have commercial appeal.

2. Evaluating and screening product ideas. Everybody
likes their own ideas, but that doesn't mean others will. When
you're evaluating ideas for their potential, it's important to get
objective opinions. For help with technical issues, many companies
take their ideas to testing laboratories, engineering consultants,
product development firms, and university and college technical
testing services. When it comes to evaluating an idea's commercial
potential, many entrepreneurs use the Preliminary Innovation
Evaluation System (PIES) technique. This is a formal methodology
for assessing the commercial potential of inventions and
innovations.

3. Protecting your ideas. If you think you've come up
with a valuable idea for a new product, you should take steps to
protect it. Most people who want to protect ideas think first of
patents. There are good reasons for this. For one thing, you will
find it difficult to license your idea to other companies, should
you wish to do so, without patent protection. However, getting a
patent is a lengthy, complicated process, and one you shouldn't
embark on without professional help; this makes the process
expensive. If you wish to pursue a patent for your ideas, contact a
registered patent attorney or patent agent.

Many firms choose to protect ideas using trade secrecy. This is
simply a matter of keeping knowledge of your ideas, designs,
processes, techniques or any other unique component of your
creation limited to yourself or a small group of people. Most trade
secrets are in the areas of chemical formulas, factory equipment,
and machines and manufacturing processes. The formula for Coca-Cola
is one of the best-recognized and most successful trade
secrets.

4. Research and development (R&D). Both tasks are
necessary for refining most designs for new products and services.
If you're already the owner of a growing company, you're in a good
position when it comes to this stage--most independent inventors
don't have the resources to pay for this costly and often
protracted stage of product introduction. But that's not to say if
you don't have a business, you can't find the resources to
undertake this task. There are plenty of ways to get the job done
cheaply.

R&D consists of producing prototypes, testing them for
usability and other features, and refining the design until you
wind up with something you think you can make and sell for a
profit. This may involve test-marketing, beta testing, analysis of
marketing plans and sales projections, cost studies and more. As
the last step before you commit to rolling your product out,
R&D is perhaps the most important step of all.

5. Promoting and marketing your product. Now that you
have a ready-for-sale product, it's time to promote, market and
distribute it. Many of the rules that apply to existing products
also apply to promoting, marketing and distributing new products.
However, new products have some additional wrinkles. For instance,
your promotion will probably consist of a larger amount of customer
education, since you will be offering them something they have
never seen before. Your marketing may have to be broader than the
niche efforts you've used in the past because, odds are, you'll be
a little unsure about the actual market out there. Finally, you may
need to test some completely new distribution channels until you
find the right place to sell your product.